[IL-Talk] at large minutes for October

[datemeyer at sbcglobal.net]

At Large Chapter Minutes

October 5th, 2025

ZOOM Meeting

CALL TO ORDER

, 

Persons in Attendance: At Large Chapter President, David Meyer, Vice
President, Leslie Hamric,  Michelle Ault, Linda Hendle, Ken Schadd, Eileen
Truschke, Pat Olson, Marilyn Green, Monica Primm,  Mark Primm, Jemal Powell,
Jean Johnson, Rachel Ng, Greg Rosenberg, Dennis Devitt, Debbie Pittman,
Barbara Meyer, Yvonne Agyarko. The meeting was called to order at 7:05 PM

PRESIDENTIAL RELEASE

This is the Chapter version of Presidential Release 553 on Monday, September
29th, 2025.

This month is Blind Equality Achievement Month and all chapters and
individuals are encouraged to  participate in the Coast to Coast Movement
Challenge. We can do this either on-site or virtually.  We are celebrating
movement and we want to get out moving in our community. We would like to
support interest and answer questions in the public and also generate
donations to the National  Federation of the Blind. There is not a
registration fee to sign up and be a virtual participate.  We can do that by
going to nfb.org/movers. If there are any questions about virtual
participation  we can talk to Rachel Held at our National Office. She can be
reached at 410-659-9314, ext 2423.  Email:  rheld at nfb.org . If an individual
or chapter would like to participate in person by coming to Maryland for our
Bay  Bridge run/walk event on November 9th you can find information at the
web page, nfb.org/movers.  There is a registration fee to participate in
person in Maryland. This fee is the fee the race  provider has. The
Federation will waive this fee for the Bay bridge run/walk if you are one of
the  first 25 individuals to register and agree to raise $500.00 to support
the work of the National  Federation of the Blind. Every donation that is
made during this campaign can be tagged to a  specific individual or
chapter.

Some Advocacy notes is that on September 26th 2025, Representative Jan
Schakowsky of Illinois  introduced the Medical Device non-visual
accessibility act. It is HR 5056. There were 12  originating co-sponsors,
Please go out and help get co-sponsors for this,

We also have been advocating to make the telehealth provisions under the law
permanent. The  provision that we are concerned about will expire tomorrow.
He is sharing with us that the Connect  for Health Act which is S1261 and HR
4246 has been introduced into Congress and this would do  exactly what we
want but outside of the budget process. It would make the medicare
telehealth  extensions provisions permanent. As of Friday there was already
63 Senators co-sponsoring the  Senate bill which means that it already has
more than the majority of the support. 

Those are two important advocacy items to work on in the month of October.

There will be a Presidential Release Live from Washington DC on November
9th.

STATE PRESIDENTS REPORT

Marilyn Green, who is our State President, gave us the States Presidents
Report. 

Our Illinois State Convention starts on Friday, October 17th and ends on
Sunday, October 19th.  Pre-registration just ended on Friday so if you did
not pre-register the fees did go up. The room  block is also now closed. We
will be at the Chicago Marriott Naperville Hotel, 1801 N. Naper Blvd,
Naperville, IL. The convention agenda is ready and has been sent out to be
put in Braille. Brain  Mackey will have it on our web site by the end of
this week. David Meyer also posted on IL-Talk and  Iabs Talk that the agenda
is available on NFB NEWSLINE. We will have our Braille is Beautiful on
Friday and a breakfast on Saturday which will be Reflecting Our Truth. There
will be an overview of  Resolutions as well as Structured Discovery. Andrew
Webb will be there from the Illinois Bureau of  Community Services and we
will have a presentation on the Illinois ABLE plan. There will be  Sculpting
with Clay, a Sound Bath experience, NFB Got Talent and also some exhibitors.
We will have  a parent break out, and The Illinois Association of Blind
Merchants will be having a meeting. There  will also be a business meeting
and a banquet dinner. We plan to adjourn around 9 or 10 PM and will  have a
breakfast on Sunday Morning. The agenda will be jam packed, some new things
and some  standard and we look forward to welcoming in the new people.

NEW BUSINESS

The Chicago Chapter will have a walk around the Riverwalk and that will be
on Saturday, October  25th. What this will do is raise money for The
National Federation of the Blind and its programs.  Chicago Chapter,Denise
Avant has issued a Challenge to other Chapters. At Large Chapter President,
David Meyer, asked if there was anything that we might want to do to raise
some money for this  event. Debbie Pittman and Jean Johnson volunteered to
represent the At Large Chapter as walkers and  David Meyer will check out
the particulars with Patti Chang.

The Chicago Chapter is having a read-a-thon on Saturday, October 11th from
1:00 PM to 4:00PM. We  need both readers and donars. We will be using David
Meyers ZOOM link. Any sort of reading is  acceptable. It could be Braille
reading, print reading, talking book machine, victor streamer,  reading from
NEWSLINE. The cost for entering is $10.00. If we get contributions outside
the  organization of $10.00 or more your entrance fee will be waived. This
is a fundraiser. We had some  volunteers to read. The Chicago Chapter does
have a ZELLE account which we can use for the entrance  fee. The email
address is:  Chicago.treasurer at nfbofillinois.org . 

OLD BUSINESS

none

Approval of minutes for the September meeting 2025

Debbie Pittman moved and Linda Hendle seconded. All in favor said Aye and
minutes were approved

The next meeting will be held on the first Sunday of the Month which will be
November 2nd at 7:00PM.

David Meyer motioned to adjourn and Jemal Powell seconded. All in favor said
Aye. Meeting was  adjourned at 8:06 PM.

Respectfully Submitted,

Michelle Ault

Secretary/Treasurer